Cd-rom Woes!!!!

[dar]

Hi there, I can't seem to find a solution to this on your site I'm hoping other members can help. I have been going through every thing on the net trying to figure this out. My cd rom is a 52x and all of a sudden it refuses to work. When I go into "my computer" the cd rom is there and the properties show that the used space is completely filled up and I have no free space left. In my computer it shows that there is a CD in the cd rom, there isn't of course and when I do put one in it say's device not ready; d:\ is not accessible. Any one have the answers and have the time to help me out. Thanks for the info on your site even though you may not be able to help! Darlene:confused:

[Fruss Tray Ted]

DAR,

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif FORUMS!

My suggestion would be to:

Right click My Computer, select properties> Device manager, expand the CD-ROM plus sign and highlight the CD-ROM that's not working (will prob have a yellow question mark by it), select remove and reboot.

Windows should reinstall on reboot if all goes well.

[dar]

Thanks for that swift reply Fruss Tray Ted but I did as you suggested and nothing has changed. Any other ideas? By the way thanks again.

Dar

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Does it open the tray? Spin at all?

If it is set to auto start, don't have anything pertaining to the CD open. Then insert a music CD (not one with video for now). Does it spin up at all? If not, try accessing it by CD Player and try that.

You may also have a bad power supply or loose connections.

Please give a few more details to your system when you post back like your OS, power supply if known, HDD or make or model of your pc or motherboard. And if you have recently added/removed any hardware lately. The more info the better we can narrow down reason for the problem.

If you can keep reboots to a minimum for now just in case we'll need to do a reg-restore, but not until we've exhausted the other avenues first.

Or simply the CD could be toast. How old is it? Any other pc around to try components in?

[Whyzman]

On boot are you seeing the LED on the front of the CD-ROM light up? This would let you know the unit is receiving power.

If you are using Win9X or ME, you might want to try Fruss' suggestion again, however, go into SAFEMODE and REMOVE all instances of a CD-ROM under DEVICE MANAGER.

Have you installed any new Software recently?

[Sylvander]

How about trying a free, online, PC test at
http://www.pcpitstop.com/

It may just find something amiss.

You could also try booting from a startup disk "with CD-ROM support" and use DOS commands to access a CD. If this works [using the drivers on the floppy] then there's nothing wrong with your hardware. You have a software/configuration problem. If you haven't changed your software then you have a configuration problem and you should do the following:
If you are using windows 98 use the "scanreg /restore" command at a DOS prompt [restart in MS-DOS mode] to restore a registry [and configuration files] copy taken before the problem was introduced.

If
you DID change your software and you can afford to step back to when you didn't have this installed
and if
you also have a system of backup
then:
restore a backup taken before the problem was introduced.

[Sylvander]

Read this
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/cd/recogDriver-c.html
and weep.

Either that or find your solution here.

[dar]

Hi everyone, thanks for helping me out, but I had more comp problems ----VIRUSES!!!!! I went into my computer into properties and this message that wasn't there before came up===CD ROM IS USING AN MS-DOS COMPATIBILITY MODE FILE SYSTEM! Can anybody tell me if this could be my problem? Thanks again, Dar.:confused:

[Sylvander]

Yes, this is definitely an indication that you have a problem.

Figuring out the exact nature and cause is another matter entirely.

1. Did you try using your startup disk to access a disk in the CD-drive?

2. Do you have a system of backup?
a. If so have you made any backups?

3. Do you have anti-virus software.
a. Have you scanned for and eliminated found viruses?
b. Has your AV prog made a backup of your Partition/Boot sectors when they were clean of viruses and have you restored them.

4. Assuming it's a driver problem you could "Update Driver" by going to[this applies to Win98]:
[If the driver is already on your HDD]
"Control Panel>System[Properties]>Device Manager>CD-ROM>[your CD-Drive]>Properties>Driver>Update Driver>next>Display a list>next>Show compatible Hardware>[select a suitable driver]>next"

and proceed sensibly from there [I had to stop or I'd have installed a driver on my system]

[If the above fails to find it on the HDD, but it's on a floppy Disk in the FDD], go to:
"Control Panel>System[Properties]>Device Manager>CD-ROM>[your CD-Drive]>Properties>Driver>Update Driver>next>Search for a better>[tick]floppy Disk Drive>next"

5. Did you make any changes [to your PC's software, hardware or configuration] immediately prior to this happening?
e.g. Has your CD-Drive, drive letter designation changed since you installed the driver? [Did you add another HDD or make any extra partitions?]
See this http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/cd/config_DOSMode.htm
and "The drive letter assigned to my CD-ROM..."
Beginning
"Explanation: The CD-ROM drive you use in your system is using a specific drive letter. Under certain circumstances (notably when changing hardware configurations such as adding a hard disk or using a removable drive) the letter associated with the CD-ROM changes. So the CD-ROM may be D: in some cases but E: after a change. This causes installed software to stop functioning since it looks for the information on the CD using the D: path when the drive is now on E:.

Diagnosis: CD-ROM drives are mapped to a drive letter using the driver software that enables them to function. This is done by the DOS program MSCDEX if you are using DOS or Windows 3.x, or a built-in CD-ROM file extension program if you are using Windows 95 or NT. By default, the CD-ROM drive takes the next unused drive letter available on the system, after all hard disk volumes are assigned letters. If you add a hard disk or change the partitioning to add another disk volume, or if you add a removable drive whose drivers load before the CD-ROM's, the CD-ROM's letter will be bumped up to the next letter."

Step 4 above will fix this [I think].

[Budfred]

What have you done about the virus infection??? Did you run a strong antivirus program and does it say you are clean now? Dealing with the virus is the first priority and it is probably the cause of your problems with the CD.

Budfred

[mjc]

Compatibilty mode is usually a sign of driver errors, either the device itself or the IDE drivers. Also if you checked in Safe Mode, it will always show that, because the bus master drivers are not loaded.